June Archive

Governments have few tools to increase births

Michael Cook | 03 June 2009

How much can governments do to boost birth rates and avoid population ageing? A lot of research is going into encouraging higher fertility, but demographers are still perplexed. In the Vienna Yearbook of Population Research 2008, John Bongaarts, who has worked with the Population Council in New York for 30 years and is one of the world’s most respected demographers, tackles the question. And his answer is: not much.

Not another conspiracy!

Michael Cook | 01 June 2009

Talk of the Zionist-Bolshevik-Masonic-Wall Street conspiracy to takeover the world has been muted for the past few years, thank goodness.But Bill Gates & Co seem to be stoking the fires again. According to the London Sunday Timessome of America’s best-known billionaires met secretly in New York onMay 5 to discuss ways to fix the world through philanthropy. The littletete-a-tete, nicknamed “The Good Club” included David Rockefeller Jr,Warren Buffett, George Soros, Michael Bloomberg, Ted Turner and OprahWinfrey. It took place at the home of Sir Paul Nurse, a British Nobelprize laureate and president of Rockefeller University.

May Archive

Brazil slips into below-replacement fertility

Michael Cook | 29 May 2009

Brazil has joined the zero population growth club. Official statistics show that its fertility rate plummeted to 1.9 children per woman in 2007. This was even lower than previous rates estimated by the UN and the US Census Bureau. Brazil’s long-term fertility rate is now lower than the United States (2.1) and even than France (2.0).

Our unpredictable demographic future

Michael Cook | 27 May 2009

Here is concise summary of the gloomy future forecast by some demographers:“Within the next quarter century true depopulation — a persistent long-run excess of deaths over births — will manifest itself in nearly all...

Where Planned Parenthood wants you to have MORE kids

Michael Cook | 25 May 2009

Here is something you don’t read every day, not by a long shot: an official of Planned Parenthood pleading with his countrymen and women to have MORE children. He calls upon them to prevent abortion, to promote marriage and to encourage young people to marry and have children:

Would a smaller Australia be any fun?

Michael Cook | 22 May 2009

Australia is an immense country, but most of it is arid desert or semi-desert and the population clings to the coast. As an Australian poet said, "It has a wet rim where the people clot / Like mud". So it would be difficult to support a huge population. However, enthusiasts for "sustainable development" think that its meagre 21 million are already far too many for its fragile ecology. The national president of Sustainable Population Australia recently argued that the country needed a one-child policy to reduce the population from 21 million souls to just 7 million.

Demographics put to good use. Selling shiny objects

Brian Lilley | 21 May 2009

It is important to remember that politicians and policy makers are probably less likely than many other people, in less lofty human endeavours, to use demographics – like marketers.

Russian demographics, the debate continues

Brian Lilley | 21 May 2009

It appears Michael Cook isn’t alone in paying attention to Russian demographic trends. The Daily Telegraph in London is hosting an online supplement on Russia from Rossiyskaya Gazeta. Writer Sergei Balashov takes on the issue of Russian depopulation, not from a position that this issue will change Mother Russia into a frozen caliphate but that Russia’s declining population will leave few workers to care for the elderly or the young.

Children’s Day bleaker each year in Japan

Michael Cook | 20 May 2009

May 5 is Kodomo no Hi, or Children’s Day in Japan – a national holiday. The custom is to fly the carp-shaped koinobori flags, one for each child. But as a recent report from AP points out, each year for the past 28 years there have been fewer and fewer children to enjoy the holiday. Japan has the lowest percentage of children amongst 31 major countries – only 13%, compared to 20% in the United States.

The piggy bank is empty

Michael Cook | 19 May 2009

US Medicare and Social Security will run out of money even sooner than expected because of the recession, according to the Obama administration. Medicare, which pays hospital bills for older Americans is expected to run out of money in 2017, two years sooner than projected last year. The Social Security trust fund will be exhausted in 2037, four years earlier than predicted.

Russia resists declinist theories (2)

Michael Cook | 15 May 2009

Don’t trust demographic graphs, says Anatoly Karlin, a San Francisco blogger and Russia analyst writing in the Discovery Institute’s Russia Blog. He believes that there is room for cautious optimism about Russia’s future.

Russia resists declinist theories (1)

Michael Cook | 15 May 2009

According to many experts and political analysts, Russia is headed for a demographic collapse because of a collapsing birth rate and a high mortality rate. Questions are being raised about its ability to defend its borders from immigrants from China, and to defend its identity as a country of ethnic Russians. There are dire predictions that Russia will be a largely Muslim country by 2050.

Is Africa “under-populated”? UN official says Yes

Michael Cook | 14 May 2009

Here’s something you don’t read about every day: a United Nations official complaining about under-population. Karen Hardee, of Population Action International, reports on the PAI blog that the Ethopian representative of the United Nations Environment Program ticked her off at one of those posh UN summits. This one took place on Ethiopia's first celebration of Earth Day on April 22.

A snapshot of Japanese ageing

Michael Cook | 13 May 2009

The Stanford Center of Longevity recently held a conference about ageing in Asia. Many of the Powerpoint presentations are available its website. One that interested me was a bleak snapshot of Japan (huge download, by the way). A few facts:

Swine flu “aggravated” by over-population

Michael Cook | 12 May 2009

The link between the swine flu epidemic was sure to pop up somewhere. And so it did, in a press release from the Population Media Center, another ginger group for population control.

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